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David Davis has been stripped of his most hardline Brexit minister in the latest sign that Theresa May is planning to soften the terms of Britain’s exit from the European Union.

David Jones, a minister of state in the Department for Exiting the EU, was sacked as by Mrs May, who failed to tell the Brexit minister about her plans.

He was replaced by Baroness Anelay, who is thought to have supported the Remain campaign before last year’s EU referendum.

That came another of his ministers Lord Bridges resigned at the weekend.

The peer was replaced by Steve Baker MP, a key player in the Vote Leave campaign and prominent Eurosceptic MP.

The changes mean that the Government’s Brexit department has lost two of its four ministers just days before talks are due to start on Monday.

The decision was apparently a surprise to Mr Davis, the Exiting the EU secretary who only found out when he was informed by Mr Jones on Monday evening.

One source said: “David Davis knew nothing about it [when] David Jones rang him. He was absolutely stunned. He said: ‘I have lost half my ministerial team’.”

One source questioned why Mrs May had dispensed with half of her team of ministers who were overseeing the Brexit talks just days before the formal start of negotiations on Monday.

The source said: “It is very, very odd. He had no idea why she has lost half of the DExEu team.

“The problem is this – the Brexit negotiations started in a week, both George and David have now got 12 months of knowledge they have absorbed and are carrying around in their heads.”

“They had been attending council and had personal knowledge of the EU ministers from the other member states. David has their numbers in his iPhone.

“He texted them and built up good relations with the members of the European Parliament who are also important. Personal relationships were going to be so important in this negotiation.”

One friend blamed the clear-out on the arrival of pro-EU Damian Green, as the new deputy Prime Minister at the Cabinet Office.

Of the 12 MPs promoted in the reshuffle so far, just two – Steve Baker and Dominic Raab – were Leave supporters at the referendum last year.

There was concern among Brexit supporters that other prominent Remain MPs such as Mark Field (Foreign Office) Claire Perry (Business Energy and Industrial Strategy) and Alistair Burt (Foreign Office) returned to the Government benches.

There was particular anger about Mrs Perry who in a debate in the House of Commons in February described pro-Brexit MPs as “Jihadis”.

She said: “I feel sometimes I am sitting along with colleagues who are like jihadis in their support for a hard Brexit.”